Point-Of-Two: The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas

Title: The Assassin’s Blade

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Series: Throne of Glass 0.1-0.5

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance

Format: Published March 4th 2014 by Bloomsbury USA Childrens

Source: Own copy; bought in Fully Booked

“This girl wasn’t like wildfire – she was wildfire . Deadly and uncontrollable. And slightly out of her wits.”

The Summary:

Celaena Sardothien is her kingdom’s most feared assassin. Though she works for the powerful and ruthless Assassin’s Guild, Celaena yields to no one and trusts only her fellow killer for hire, Sam.

When Celaena’s scheming master, Arobynn Hamel, dispatches her on missions that take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, she finds herself acting independently of his wishes—and questioning her own allegiance. Along the way, she makes friends and enemies alike, and discovers that she feels far more for Sam than just friendship. But by defying Arobynn’s orders, Celaena risks unimaginable punishment, and with Sam by her side, he is in danger, too. They will have to risk it all if they hope to escape Arobynn’s clutches—and if they fail, they’ll lose not just a chance at freedom, but their lives…

A prequel to Throne of Glass, this collection of five novellas offers listeners a deeper look into the history of this cunning assassin and her enthralling—and deadly—world.

Included in this volume:

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord
The Assassin and the Healer
The Assassin and the Desert
The Assassin and the Underworld
The Assassin and the Empire

Our Thoughts:

Erika: There are 2 things I learned while reading this:

1. Arobynn, go to hell or somewhere worse cause I don’t think even hell would accept you.

2. Sam, you are the guy I’ve been waiting for all my life. I love you. Please have my babies. And we should totally be like this all day everyday!

Miedjel: And here are 6 things I learned while reading this:

The desert was hot.

The pirate smelled bad.

The healer was weak.

Sam was hot.

Sad ending.

It was amazeballs.

Erika: I have to say that this book left me a mess. I seriously couldn’t contain all my emotions while I was reading this. In the first two books, we see the badassness of Celaena right? But what we don’t really see is her vulnerability and who she really is. It’s amazing how in this book, I fell even more in love with Celaena.

Alone with Rolfe, Celaena raised her sword. “Celaena Sardothien, at your service.”

The pirate was still staring at her, his face pale with rage. “How dare you deceive me?” She sketched a bow.

“I did nothing of the sort. I told you I was beautiful.”

From the first novella, The Assassin and the Pirate World, we see her conviction and even though she was raised an assassin with the thoughts of only to kill and torture, she was still good. When she knew that they were trading slaves, she did everything in her power to free them. I didn’t think it was possible to route for her more but after you read this, you will.

Miedjel: This is where we first meet Sam and I will just say I instantly fell in love with him. Anyway, at the first page of this book you can really see that Celaena is the boss and that there is tension between her and Sam. This novella really shows that even though she is strong and can beat anyone she still has a heart.

Sam’s hand brushed her shoulder, and she almost jumped out of her skin as he brought his mouth close to her ear and murmured, “You look beautiful. Though I bet you already know that.” She most certainly did.

Erika: Yup, Sam is the one for me. I love how he did the old tugging the hair and saying you don’t like the girl but you really do. I’m such a sucker for that kind of cliche. I can’t think of any faults in this guy. Sarah is killing me with all these amazing guys. I just can’t take it. Especially since we all know what’s gonna happen to him…… it’s heart shattering

Then we get to see more of her kindness in, The Assassin and the Healer. You can tell that a person is truly good when she/he does things even without people knowing. You don’t do it because you will seem like a good person but you do it because you are. Even with all the evil surrounding Celaena, her heart still remains pure and good. I admire her for that.

“Let me give you a bit of advice,” the girl said bitterly, “from one working girl to another: Life isn’t easy, no matter where you are. You’ll make choices you think are right, and then suffer for them.”

Miedjel: This novella starts in Yrene’s point of view which I like very much cause what she thought when she saw Celaena is exactly how I’d feel if and when I see her around some kind of bar, bruised and all. Also, I think it’s about how Celaena at one point wanted to be a healer as well and that’s why this novella was created. Well, that’s just in my opinion anyway.

Erika: Now, where did you get that info Miedjel? 

Miedjel: Oops, I think that’s in Heir of Fire. 

Erika: …

In The Assassin and The Desert, she goes to the Mute Master Assassin to get her approval which apparently is very hard to get but she is Celaena. She can do anything!

Miedjel: I really like this novella! It actually might be my favorite. Because here, you could see how bad she is. I also like that she could just show off in the beginning that “Yeah, I’m tired and sweaty but then I could still kick all ya’ll asses!!!”

Erika: As if the guys aren’t enough, Sarah adds another cutie, Ilias, who is the Mute Master’s son. Yup, Celaena attracts all men AND woman. Here, she also meets her best friend, Ansel. This is some complicated stuff because Ansel has been through so much shit and seen the horrible things human do. I don’t agree with what she did but can you completely blame her though? I don’t know what I’d do when those horrible things happen to me. I’d probably go mad.

“If you can learn to endure pain, you can survive anything. Some people learn to embrace it—to love it. Some endure it through drowning it in sorrow, or by making themselves forget. Others turn it into anger.”

Erika: We have the last two, The Assassin and the Underworld & The Assassin and the Empire. The Underworld is my favorite novella among them all because here is the moment were Sam and Celaena become real and I honestly couldn’t stop grinning and being happy. Can you just imagine the children they would make? He/she would be so beautiful and the greatest assassin who ever lived.

“My price was his oath that he’d never lay a hand on you again. I told him I’d forgive him in exchange for that.”

Miedjel: I like this one because here she realizes that things need to change also she and Sam have a little moment here which I love. Actually, for me its mostly about her and Sam in this novella.

“I don’t want Lysandra, or anyone for else for hire,”

“And you’re a damned fool for not seeing it.”

Erika: YES IT IS! I have to admit that when Sam came into my life, I freaking forgot all them. I forget Chaol and Dorian, who is my absolute baby. That was how great Sam is. I would trade my life just to ensure that he lives. I love him and I know it’s silly that I have even a minuscule of hope that he is alive and will just suddenly pop up maybe at the end of the series but I just can’t help it. Cause when that happens, I’ll go batshit crazy and I might not be able to control my feels and sorry to all of Celaena’s men but Team Sam for sure.

Miedjel: The last novella is going to tell you guys how she got caught and how Sam, well… died. So as you guys can see it is a very sad novella but then I just want you guys to know that the last line of this novella is mind blowing.

“She would tuck Sam into her heart, a bright light for her to take out whenever things were darkest.”

Erika: The ending was really really intense! Now, we have to talk about Arobynn. He is a monster who I want to seriously kill. I hate him so much. The way he manipulated Celaena and Sam. Also, when he beat them up. I couldn’t take it. I was on fire. I was so mad that I swear, I feel like anyone 5 feet from me were at risk. I hate this guy. He is so twisted saying that he loves Celaena. He is so disgusting. Dude, you’r like 60 yrs old. Did you seriously think she’d pick you over Sam?! Just proves how crazy you are! He can die and no one would care. Do us all a favor please Arobynn, goodbye.

Miedjel: I have this really weird thing with Arobynn. I hate him so much but I think he’s so cool that I sometimes like him? Really just this love hate relationship is happening. 

Erika: We hate him. End of story. 

Among the three books of hers I’ve read, this is my favorite! All the 5 stars so well deserved. If you guys loved Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight for sure you will love this even more. Getting to know Celaena in a deeper level is necessary for you to understand why she does what she does. I love her and in case I didn’t say this enough I love Sam.

PS: We also kind of died when we found out that the thing that Celaena always says is from Sam. Yup, dead.

“I love you,”

“And from today onward, I want to never be separated from you. Wherever you go, I go. Even if that means going to Hell itself, wherever you are, that’s where I want to be. Forever.”

Happy reading!!!